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「If it’s about the timing, the reason could only be the raid quest, right? Perhaps because the number of participants was low this time, quite a lot of EXP was distributed.」
「As expected, it’d come down to that, right? Raid, huh?」
「Say, Seiichi. To begin with, what is an essence crystal, anyway?」
Getting out of the bathtub, Touma sat down on a bath chair.
It was a wooden bath chair that sported a very normal shape.
It was by no means a uselessly versatile chair with a concave center.
It was a versatile chair, but it was only used for special purposes, so it was left in a corner as if to hide it.
「When it comes to what in the world it is, actually, it’s a crystalline body that is still unanalyzable (unknown).」
「Is it not like the crystals that monsters drop?」
「No, it’s not. It’s totally not the same. Apparently.」
The crystals that monsters dropped when they disappeared, in other words, when they were reduced to miasma, were a crystallization of miasma (astral) that had concentrated.
Seiichi, who had been enjoying a footbath, also left the bathtub and sat back in a chair in the washing area.
「… After you guys fell in the dungeon at the beginning, the way you dropped your crystals were similar to when you crushed a monster.」
「We naturally have no recollection of that, though. However, originally, even if those who dive into the dungeon were to die, they are set to return to the above ground as is without losing anything. That should be the case, it seems.」
This was the concept behind the large scale magialogy plant called『Rashomon』.
In the beginning, it was a door meant to seal the『ruins』 that served as the entrance to the dungeon.
If you were to unravel the oldest extant documents in the academy, it was said to be related to esoteric Buddhism, which was founded by En no Ozunu.
It was also mentioned in Japan’s oldest collection of tales, 『Nihon Ryōiki』, and according to it, it was said to be『the boundary between the present realm and the everlasting realm, the path to the underworld, that was Yomotsu Hirasaka』.
It was said to have been under the management of the Onmyou Bureau, but in reality it seemed to have been treated as a place of demotion, and the diary of complaints that was said to have been left behind by the person in charge at the time was treasured in the academy library.
A series of sealing rituals to deal with the『ruins』 that, as if acting in concert with the disorder of the realm, spewed out miasma and monsters from time to time were passed down from generation to generation.
What this means was that『Rashomon』 was originally a door that could not be opened, nothing but a facility to isolate the inside from the outside, the everlasting realm from the present realm.
It was at the end of the 19th century, when the Japan of that time abolished its national isolation policy and aimed to go「Out of Asia and Into Europe」 as the idea of「rich country, strong army」 began to grow, that this『Rashomon』 began to have bizarre evolution.
As the war against the superpower nations intensified, what researched behind closed doors was the Enhanced Human Project
It was a plan to actively utilize the ruins called the dungeon, as opposed to leaving as a target for sealing.
Initially, the goal was to strengthen the bodies of soldiers, but later on, research was also conducted on the undead system of『Rashomon』, a facility that by that time had already become an OOPArt as most of the knowledge and arts-techniques pertaining to it were long lost, as well as on magic items produced from the dungeon.
At the same time, the occult heritage of magic, sorcery, wizardry, and mysticism gathered by any means necessary from all over the world was also being compiled.
Although they showed a certain extent of result, the magic items in particular fell to an inert state in the present realm, where the miasma density was low, and didn’t get to be utilized on the front lines.
The system that they paid the most attention to and attempted to recreate was the『Rousing the Souls Controlling the Spirits Arts-Technique』, which acted as the foundation of Rashomon.
It was a black box that recorded and switched the souls and spirits to create a pseudo-immortality.
In the end, however, they wound up welcoming the end of the war while it remained unanalyzable (unknown).
If anything, the materials got further scattered and ultimately lost during the post war chaos, and the interference by means of experimentations and verifications had distorted the seal of the 』ruins』 to the point of it being irreparable.
「Yes. Even for the academy, 『Rashomon』 is lost magialogy in itself.」
Done washing his hair, Seiichi took a shower from his head down.
「Hmm. I’ve already lost track of the conversation, though.」
「Keep up with it a little longer, dude. I’m also trying to put my thoughts together as we speak, after all. Well, it’s a given, but even in Rashomon’s『Rousing the Souls Controlling the Spirits Arts-Technique」, the essential part is also the black box. As for the loss of essence crystal, I don’t know whether it’s a bug of a mechanism.」
When Touma, who decided to simply nod for the time being, beckoned to it, the figurine gimmick at the back of the rock bath moved over and laid down on the floor.
Pouring tons of shampoo all over the gimmick, Touma began to wash it briskly.
For Touma, it was akin to washing a pillow he occasionally used, but given the size, it simply looked as if he was washing a mini truck.
Seiichi, his face stiffened, looked away from the mysterious figurine that was rumbling its throat seemingly in a good mood.
「… Speaking of essence crystals (soul device), it seemed that at first they were thought to be a crystallization of human essences. Unlike monster crystals, they don’t reduce to magical energy, but, well, since they were believed to be some kind of catalyst, people seemed to name them『Soul Circuit (Soul Device)』.」
「It’s a word I have recollection of hearing in class. If I remember it correctly, three souls and seven spirits, or something.」
「Yeah, the one from Taoism. Onmyōdō (The way of Yin-Yang), which is the origin of Japanese occultism, adopts quite a lot of parts of Taoism into it, you know. In fact, I think the Rashomon system is also based on the『Tao』 of Yin and Yang ideology. That and the Shenxian thought (ancient Chinese’s belief in mountain wizards), in other words the『immortal』 with perpetual youth and longevity.」
The concept of the soul was born from the notion that human death was the separation of the flesh from the essence, just as how they brought forth the world of afterlife from their view of life and death.
It was a product of piling up delusions and illusions that were defined as『how it should be』, and was by no means a phenomenon that had been proven or verified.
However, crossing over time and moving through places, the『the world of afterlife and the existence of the soul』 had been passed down from generation to generation all over the world with an astonishing degree of similarity.
Among them, the concept of the soul in Taoism was represented by the duality of『souls and spirits (essences)』.
The『souls』 supported the mind and belonged to heaven, while the『spirits』 supported the flesh and belonged to earth.
Each of the three souls and seven spirits was imbued with an attribute, that was the three souls that governed the mind『heavenly soul, earthly soul and human soul』, the seven spirits that governed the flesh『joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, evil and desire』.
The academy believed that these『three souls and seven spirits』 were the elements that made human beings, lumps of flesh, human beings.
「It is said that the『rousing the souls controlling the spirits art-technique』 is the technique to attain this perpetual youth and longevity and become an immortal. This is, in other words, the undead system of Rashomon itself, right?」
If the essences were detached from the flesh upon death, then it was only logical that one would never die as long as they kept their essences in their flesh.
Thus born the immortality art『rousing the souls controlling the spirits』.
「As far as I’m concerned, as expected I believe that the『essence crystal (soul device)』 is a part of the so-called soul. If the idea of『three souls and seven spirits』 is correct, then it must be some elements that slip out from among these. That thing is.」
Touma, who was spraying shower on the mysterious figurine, which had turned into a lump of fuzzy foam, twitched.
「I bet Shizuka has given her consent, so I won’t say anything. Though, well, I think you should hide it a little better in the places that are under the academy’s gaze.」
「What are you talking about?」
「Well, leaving that aside. If the essences of Mikan-chan-senpai and the other have returned to their original state, then I guess that means it is possible for the essences to be regenerated, or perhaps restored.」
Shaking its body to shake off the moisture, the mysterious figurine swaggered back into the bathtub and turned back into a figurine gimmick.
「I can’t understand complicated things. However, if it’s something originally theirs, something necessary for them but was taken away from them, then I’ll simply get it back.」
「Then I guess we’ll have to add a new policy. Let’s share the information with Mikan-chan-senpai and the others too. Looking at how charmed they are by you, I doubt they’d betray us, after all.」
「I’ll leave the explanation to you.」
「… I thought about having you do it, but I guess it’s better than having the matter twisted in a strange way, huh.」
In order to keep a secret, the fewer people who know it, the better.
If the number of people who shared the secret were to increase, the possibility of the information getting leaked would increase just as much.
There would probably be a need to confer with the practical two-tops of the club, Rinko and Shizuka.
When it came to this kind of matter, the charismatic symbol of the club, Mikan, and the nominal leader of the club, Touma, didn’t seem going to be of much help.
Rather, it was obvious that they would be harmful.
「Come to think of it, speaking of the other name of『Essence Crystal (Soul Device)』, you see. It seems to also be known as『Sacrum』.」